This invention is directed to a roof drain which is capable of being oriented in either a sump or a flush orientation with respect to a roof. The roof drain includes a body and a grate attaching thereto with the grate fitting down into the body for the sump orientation, or in combination with an insert which fits into the body to which the grate attaches for the flush orientation.
Structures with flat roofs generally benefit by locating one or more drains on the flat roof to assist in water removal during rain, snow and the like. If these roof drains are incorporated during construction, their placement can be such with regard to number and location that water is removed from the roof concurrently with deposit thereon. Many times, however, buildings are constructed with flat roofs with no roof drains incorporated therein.
On those structures which have flat roofs, and no roof drains provided, ponding of water can occur on the roof with this ponding ultimately resulting in serious deterioration of the roof in those areas wherein the ponding occurs. Sunlight passing through the standing water in such a pond located on a roof tends to be reflected and/or refracted by the water such that deterioration of the roofing material in the ponding area occurs, resulting in leakage of the roof at this area. In roofs which have been subjected to prior ponding, it is advisable to attempt to prevent future ponding on the roof. As such, roof drains installed on these roofs should be capable of totally draining the roof to prevent further deterioration of the roofing material. In such instances, the roof drain should act as a sump capable of removing all standing water located in the area of the roof drain.
In other instances, it is desirable to govern the flow of water off a roof during a rain storm or the like. In these instances, a roof drain which lies flush with the surface of the roof and utilizes a grate having weirs to accommodate different flow rates of water through the grate depending upon the height of the water standing against the grate might be the roof drain of choice.
Further, during new construction, it is highly desirable to have the roofing material as continuous as possible into the grate area of the roof drain. Roof drains which make no provision for having roofing material laid over their surfaces, except for the drain areas, do not allow this type of construction. By incorporating the roofing material as close as possible to the grate structure the integrity of the roof is insured over a long service life.
With regard to the above described problems, a product could be customized for each and every one of the desired applications. The production, however, of many individual, customized products leads to escalating costs of the products. Whether or not these products are formed from metal or plastic, dies and/or molds must be used to manufacture the product. Since these individual dies and molds can be quite expensive, depending upon the size and complexity of the mold or die, the ultimate price the consumer must pay for the item is related to the number of items certain fixed costs can be spread over. The production of many different types of drain systems customized to an individual utility thus leads to increased cost of these individual units.
Additionally, storage and costs of a large inventory of many individual custom units leads to expense to the wholesaler, retailer and the like, which ultimately is also passed on the the consumer. Further, because normally skilled labor is utilized in installing roof drains and the like, optimization of installation and operation is desirable in order to further lead to a more economical product for the consumer.